Leaders of the pack: Hopedale's cross country teams open with victories

Tuesday

Sep 12, 2017 at 8:00 PMSep 12, 2017 at 10:19 PM

The ring on Joe Drugan's right hand was a plenty big symbol. Bedazzled in blue and white jewels, the ring had the Hopedale Blue Raiders' eagle head logo at the center of it. Engraved above and below that logo were two words in capital letters — 'STATE CHAMPIONS.'

By Brandon Chase/Daily News Staff

HOPEDALE — The ring on Joe Drugan’s right hand was a plenty big symbol.

Bedazzled in blue and white jewels, the ring had the Hopedale Blue Raiders’ eagle head logo at the center of it. Engraved above and below that logo were two words in capital letters — ‘STATE CHAMPIONS.’

Sure, the bling is a bit of a showoff, but Drugan and his Hopedale boys cross country team have earned the right to show off their supremacy.

The defending Division 2 state champions opened their season on Tuesday at Draper Park with a 22-36 win over Douglas, just the beginning of the team’s quest to take home its third state title in four seasons, eighth consecutive Central Mass. title, and another Dual Valley Conference championship.

The Hopedale girls, meanwhile, beat Douglas 19-35 on Tuesday.

Don’t anoint Hopedale boys the repeat champs just yet, though.

“I’m not even going to predict that,” Drugan said. “I really don’t know. That’s something that … if I had a crystal ball, I could see that but I can’t see it. I’m going to go [winning the] league first and then take it from there.”

Senior Brandon Hall, last season’s Central Mass. individual champion, leads a Hopedale team which features seniors Andrew Doran and Colin Sughrue, and junior Colin Black at the heart of Hopedale’s pack running system. All placed in the top 10 at Tuesday’s race — Hall won the 3.1-mile race in 16:35, Doran placed third in 17:51, Black finished fifth (18:11), and Sughrue placed ninth (19:19).

It’s that pack running system that Drugan says has fueled Hopedale’s success while transforming cross country into a team-oriented sport. He’ll place his stronger runners like Hall and Doran at the front of the pack to pace it, but then place 4-5 runners behind them running at a similar pace. The strategy allows multiple Hopedale runners to score low in races.

“It’s like a football team,” said Drugan. “If the Blackstone-Millville team has a guy that’s really, really good, you know the coach is going to focus on him, but he’s also going to focus on the rest of the guys because you can’t win with just one guy. “

Hopedale also stays successful by taking a methodical approach to its practices, in which athletes can sometimes run 8-9 miles in a single session. But each runner knows their limits, and they know when to ramp up their pace or slow it down to conserve energy for future races.

“It’s very intelligent training,” Hall said. “It’s taking what you can with your workouts and putting the best quality into those, and then [on] the rest days you don’t want to dog it, but you want to make sure you’re recovering so you can get a good workout for the next time.”

The Hopedale girls team has not put together the same type of recent success as its male counterpart, but its success that’s been building. A third-place finish at last season’s Central Mass. Division 2 championships served as a good jump-off point, and girls coach Tim Maguire is optimistic about what the team can accomplish.

“We have a smaller high school group than we’ve had in the past, but it’s a pretty experienced group,” Maguire said. “We have a good mix of veterans who have been around and some new talent to keep it fresh.”

Junior Isabelle Doran, one of Hopedale’s captains, won Tuesday’s race in 21:46. Carrie Mourais (second, 22:17), and Michaela Casey (fifth 24:10) are also expected to make large contributions as Hopedale’s scorers in meets.

“We trained really hard over the summer together as a pack so I think we’re all going to get a lot closer together in times,” Doran said.

And when the girls squad needs an extra motivational boost, hoping to start a legacy of its own, it draws inspiration from the boys team and its near-decade of dominance on the trails.

“It definitely motivates us to want to do better,” Doran said. “I know one of our goals this year is to make it to states again and even win [Central Mass.], so with the boys winning [Central Mass.] the last 11 years in a row, it definitely motivates us to be as good as them, if not better.”

It’s that legacy that fuels the boys team’s continued success, too.

“You can’t win forever, but you can certainly try,” Drugan said.

Tuesday’s victories were a good starts at attempting that.

Brandon Chase can be reached at 508-626-4402 or at bchase@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonNChase.

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